Team Training
by AngeliqueSaki
Summary: What does team training look like with a brooding Sasuke, a boisterous Naruko, an annoying Sakura, and an extremely tardy Kakashi? Hint: Not a lot of training actually happens.


**_(Third Person POV)_**

**"**Oi! Teme whatcha doing?**"** Naruko asked, walking over to where Sasuke was stood leaning against a tree.

**"**Hn.**"** He responded, avoiding her questioning gaze.

**"**Don**'**t 'hn' me bastard,**"** she shouted, shaking her fist at him.

**"**Baka! Leave Sasuke alone. Ne Sasuke-kun?**"** Sakura scolded Naruko, bashing her fist against Naruko's head while trying to get Sasuke**'**s attention at the same time.

**"**Dobe, be quiet. I**'**m trying to read.**"** Sasuke intoned, not taking his eyes off his book, unamused by the blonde**'**s actions.

**"**You, the almighty Teme, reading? Ha! Now that**'**s something rarely seen.**"** Naruko teased, eyeing Sasuke**'**s book with a newfound curiosity. Sakura**'**s faint **"**Leave him alone Baka!**" **in the background was ignored by both Naruko and Sasuke.

**"**I didn**'**t know that the word **'**reading**'** was even in your vocabulary.**"** Sasuke retorted, finally looking up from his book, enjoying the angry flush on the blonde**'**s cheeks. She threw a sloppy punch at him that he promptly sidestepped, making her fall flat on her face. Sakura, forgotten in the background, stared at Sasuke with hearts in her eyes, turning into a swooning, foaming mess at his **'**coolness**'**.

Naruko scrambled up quickly, shoving a finger into Sasuke**'**s chest.

**"**You did that on purpose you Teme!**"** She accused, her face turning redder at the cocky smirk displayed on his face.

**"**Hn.**"** He replied once again, going back to monosyllabic sentences.

**"**Oi don**'**t ignore me bastard!**"** Naruko shouted, jumping up and down to emphasize her point. At seeing Naruko so close to her precious crush, Sakura snapped out of her trance and quickly bopped her on her head. **"**What do you think you are doing to Sasuke-kun!**"**

**"**Demou Sakura-chan! Teme started it!**"**

**"**Don**'**t call him that!**"**

By this point, Sasuke was completely immersed in his book, fully ignoring the two girls on his team.

**"**Ne ne Sakura-chan.**"** Naruko questioned cheerfully, the argument forgotten already.

**"**What?**"** Sakura spat out, still mad at Naruko for calling her precious Sasuke-kun **'**teme**'** and insulting him.

**"**When do you think Kakashi-Sensei will get here? It**'**s been 2 hours already.**"** This question did nothing to improve Sakura**'**s bitter mood. Instead, thinking about her sensei**'**s chronic tardiness soured her mood even further.

**"**He**'**s not reliable. Who knows when that Scarecrow will arrive? He**'**s always late.**"** Sakura replied tersely, not at all happy about how her day was turning out to be. The only bright spot in her otherwise grim day was seeing her Sasuke-kun.

**"**Hey now. I take offense to that Sakura-chan. It's truly sad how little my cute genin think of me!**"** Kakashi appeared out of nowhere, scaring his cute little genin.

**"**YOU**'**RE LATE!**"** Sakura and Naruko shouted together once they got over their heart attacks.

**"**And don**'**t call us your cute little genin!**"** Naruko added, almost as an afterthought

**"**Hn.**"**

Even his emotionless genin was scowling at him, which made him pat himself on his back in glee.

**"**And here I was thinking I could teach you guys a few new jutsu today… but I guess that since I**'**m not reliable and always late we can just go grab a few missions for today instead. Weed-picking and fence-painting sound just _fabulous_ don**'**t they?**"** Kakashi said in a thoughtful tone, fully intent on squeezing this opportunity to its fullest and making them beg.

At his words, Sasuke swung his dark glare over to the two kunoichi, cursing at them for ruining his chances at learning a new jutsu after _such_ a long time. They better convince Kakashi to teach them the jutsu otherwise he would positively murder them.

As if hearing his rather… violent thoughts, the two kunoichi gulped audibly in unison before praying to whatever Kami was up there that Kakashi would teach them the new jutsu.

**"**Ano… Kakashi-Sensei…**" **Sakura started rather hesitantly, not sure what to say. **"**I… I was j-just… you know… _joking_ about what I said earlier.**"**

**"**Un! Un!**"** Naruko nodded her head along. **"**You**'**re an awesome sensei Kakashi-sensei!**"**

**"**And you**'**re _very_ reliable**"** Sakura added before sweat-dropping at all the fake praise they were lavishing upon him.

**"**And, as an extremely reliable and awesome sensei, it is your duty to teach us, your cute little genin, new jutsus!**"** Naruko wrapped up before cringing at her word choice. Particularly at the **'**cute little genin' part.

Sakura was staring at Naruko in shock, unaware that words such as 'reliable' even existed in her dictionary. Sasuke on the other hand was amused at the dobe**'**s attempts to kiss up to Kakashi and was inwardly laughing at her obvious discomfort. Outwardly though, he did not show his amusement and instead scoffed loudly.

Unfortunately, his loud scoff drew three pairs of eyes towards him.

Kakashi was staring at him as if to say, **_'_**_Well, aren__**'**__t you going to say anything?__**'**_ while the girls were looking at him with tearful eyes, all but begging him to say (or grunt) the right thing. Curse Naruko's teary blue eyes. They were too puppy-like to resist. Grudgingly, he hn**'**d, showing his _agreement_ with what the girls had said.

**"**Well, since you all are asking me so nicely, I just might change my mind!**"** Kakashi cheerfully stated. He drew perverse pleasure in listening to his students, especially his cute little emotionless one, beg him for training.

He grew even happier when he saw all three of his students' faces light up with hope (and relief to be saved from a close call with death in Naruko and Sakura's cases).

**"**But…**" **His students leaned in, anticipating what he would say next, dreading that he would set some impossible condition for them to fulfill. **"**But before I do that, why don't we take a short break? I _am_ quite tired after all.**" **Kakashi hid his smirk under his mask while his students fell on top of each other comically, causing his smirk to become even bigger.

As soon as they regained their wits, Sasuke and Naruko commenced glaring darkly, though in Naruko's case, it was looking more like a pout than anything. Sakura was too busy processing what had just happened to have any coherent thought, though she did manage to stand up behind her teammates.

**"**Why the hell are you tired?! You didn't do anything but make us beg you to train us, you lazy sensei!**" **Naruko shouted, unable to comprehend why on earth he would be the least bit tired.

**"**Maa maa… Forcing people to beg is much harder than you think.**" **Kakashi half-chastised half-placated. With that said, he plopped down in front of a tree slump, took out his precious Icha Icha Paradise, and started reading.

Naruko squawked indignantly, waving her arms around, Sakura buried her face in her arms, groaning softly and slumping against a nearby tree, and Sasuke stood there with an emotionless mask in place.

Under the mask however, there was a storm of emotions, ranging from annoyance at Kakashi and Sakura, to amusement at Naruko's antics.

**_(Sasuke's POV)_**

_'__Why must I be stuck with Kakashi as a sensei? I will never be able to achieve my goal at this rate. And Sakura will just hold me back even more. She's useless. And Naruko...' _I snuck a quick glance at her_. 'Naruko is not that bad. She provides me with a good training dummy at least.'_

I inwardly chuckled at the thought of Naruko staying still like a training dummy without complaint. That would be a miracle. Wait. Scratch that. Naruko staying still at all, with or without complaint, would be a miracle in itself.

I saw Naruko look at me strangely and realized that I was staring at her the whole time and that I had just chuckled out loud. I almost blushed at that realization. _Almost._

_'__Wait. Why is she laughing like she's… embarrassed? And why is she scratching her head like she always does when she's embarrassed? She's not the one who got caught staring.'_

Luckily though, she was the only one who noticed. Sakura was oblivious to everything around her as usual, and Kakashi was too busy reading his _book_ to notice anything. Well… I don't think he did, but knowing him, who knows?

**_(Naruko's POV)_**

_'__Mou… why is Kakashi-Sensei always like that? I mean he always makes us beg him for stuff. Well, me and Sakura do most of the begging, the stupid teme just hn's.'_

_'__Speaking of the teme, did he just look at me? As in actually look, and not glare? Nah. Must just be my imagination. There's no way he – wait! He's actually looking at me! Well, more like staring, but still! He's not glaring at me or trying to burn holes into my skull!'_

_'__Wait! Did he just chuckle? No way. I must've drank expired milk or something in the morning and I'm just dreaming up this whole day. I mean, since when does Sasuke chuckle? Sure he smirks and sneers, but he never, and I mean never, smiles, or laughs, or shows any emotions. Especially happy emotions. And chuckling shows happy emotions. Wah! The world is coming to an end!'_

Oops. I think he noticed me staring at him.

I sheepishly laugh while using my right hand to scratch my head.

**_(Sakura's POV)_**

_'__I hate Naruko. And Kakashi-Sensei. He never teaches Sasuke-kun anything. Ugh! If he doesn't teach him, then how will Sasuke-kun become my prince charming? Not that he isn't a very strong prince charming already… but to save me from dangerous enemy ninja, he needs to be stronger, he needs to be the strongest. I'll be the damsel in distress and he'll be my knight in shining armor and he'll protect me from all the big bad ninja.'_

_'__He's so close to becoming the strongest. He's the strongest Genin now. Soon, he'll become the strongest Chunin, then Jounin, then Anbu, then finally he'll become the strongest person in the world. Sqeee!'_

_'__But anyways, back to the point. Kakashi-Sensei never teaches Sasuke-kun anything, and that baka Naruko always steals his attention. And I never get their interactions. I mean, sure, all they do is fight, but at least Sasuke-kun talks to her. He doesn't even look in my direction no matter how hard I try to get his attention. He doesn't talk to me either. The most I can get out of him is 'hn' or 'no' and that's only if I get lucky.'_

_'__Naruko-baka on the other hand can actually engage in a conversation with him. Yeah, most of their conversations are just insults, but at least once in a while, they actually say a sentence to each other without an insult in it.'_

_'__And their looks and actions! I can never understand those either. They'll just be glaring at each other, when Naruko will suddenly burst out laughing and Sasuke-kun will smirk. And just now!'_

_'__And just now Sasuke-kun and Naruko were just standing. Then Sasuke-kun glances at Naruko all of a sudden, then as he looks away, Naruko looks at him. Then Sasuke-kun starts staring at Naruko, actually staring, not glaring, and Naruko stares back. They just stay like that for a few moments, then all of a sudden Sasuke-kun starts chuckling and Naruko gives him a weird look. Then she also chuckles and scratches her head like she's embarrassed, and this time, it's Sasuke-kun who gives her a weird look. And I don't get it at all. It's like they're having conversations mentally or something. And the worst part is, their doing it without me. And I don't like not being included when it involves Sasuke-kun.'_

_'__It's me he should be looking at and speaking with and laughing, not Naruko-baka!'_

**_(Third Person POV)_**

"Okay everyone!" Kakashi happily exclaimed, rising from the ground. "Break's over!"

"Finally! Your _short_ break was sooo long." Naruko complained.

Sakura, mechanically, as if on auto-pilot, got up from where she was sitting, walked over to Naruko and not so gently slammed her fist into her head.

"Mou… Sakura-chan!" Naruko whined. "That hurt! Why do you always have to hit _me_?"

"Cause you're the only stupid one, Dobe."

"What did you say Teme!"

"So the Dobe's deaf now huh?"

"Aargh! Why you!"

And that was the signal for Kakashi to intervene before the fight became physical again. He _did_ want to teach them something, after all.

"Maa maa children. You can wait after our training is over to fight. Until then behave yourselves." He said in a pacifying tone.

To Naruko and Sasuke however, his tone was anything but pacifying.

"Why are you so– so– so… ugh!" Naruko exclaimed, unable to come up with a word strong enough to describe how annoying Kakashi was.

"Why am I so ugh? You'll have to tell me what 'ugh' means before I can tell you why I am so ugh." Kakashi teased, enjoying Naruko's riled up expression.

"She means that you're very irritating. And I completely agree with her. For once." Sasuke said, coming to the rescue. Naruko shot him a grateful glance.

"Yeah! I-rri-ta-ting… irritating! That's the word I was looking for!" Naruko added, her earlier irritation [lol] gone.

"I'm not surprised that you didn't know the word. It's too big for your small brain, Dobe." Sasuke retorted with a scoff.

"Hey! What do you mean by that?!" Naruko asked loudly, causing more than one eardrum to shatter.

"Try to not destroy my eardrums even more than you already have, will you?" Sasuke asked, rubbing his ear with his pinky. He truly did think that Naruko had shattered his eardrum with her loud exclamation. "And you not knowing what I mean just further proves my point."

"If I want to shatter your eardrums I can! There's no rule saying that I can't!" Naruko, once again, shouted.

Sakura, who was forgotten till now, decided to intervene to show Sasuke how amazing she was.

"Baka! Stop shouting! You're annoying Sasuke-kun and shattering all our eardrums! Ne Sasuke-kun?" Sakura, ever the hypocrite, yelled.

"Demo Sakura-chan… isn't that what you're doing right now?" Naruko asked innocently.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Sakura questioned, too busy fawning over Sasuke to realize that she had just made a complete idiot out of herself.

Sasuke looked over at Naruko and frantically gestured at her to tell her to stop, but failed as she wasn't looking at him.

"Well… you just shouted at me not to shout. Isn't that hypocritical of you?" Naruko naively replied, not knowing what she had just done.

"I–I … well… I… Baka!" Sakura shouted, having been unable to come up with any other insult. Just as she was walking over to slam her fist on Naruko's head again, Kakashi intervened.

"Maa maa Sakura-chan, that's enough violence for today, don't you think? And besides, you need to save all the energy you have for the tortu–ahem _training_ I'm about to put you through."

"Ha? What were you about to say Kakashi-Sensei? It sounded like you were going to say something but then cut yourself off…" Naruko questioned.

"Maa… you must be imagining things Naruko-chan." Kakashi answered, glad that Naruko was oblivious enough to believe that.

Sasuke scoffed as if agreeing with his thoughts.

"He was obviously going to say that he's going to put us through _torture_ and not training. Baka."

"I'm sure that it will be super easy for you Sasuke-kun! You're the best after all!" Sakura screeched, completely ignoring Naruko, who was slowly turning the color of Sasuke's favorite fruit.

"Well, if you're so confident then why don't we make a bet? If I can finish today's training before you, or do it better than you, then I get to tell you to do one thing. And you can't say no, no matter what."

* * *

A/N: This small plot bunny came to me all of a sudden but it doesn't really fit with what I'm aiming for in _The Life of Naruko Uzumaki_, so I decided to post it separately. I also (hopefully) got my Sakura bashing out of the way in this fic lol (not that I've got anything against her; I've read some really good stories with a strong, capable Sakura) Hope you enjoyed reading!


End file.
